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What Have You Watched Recently?


Susano

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Welcome to the Punch This is a British crime flic. When his son is injured a notorious crook resurfaces to find out what happened. A police officer who was wounded by the criminal tries to catch him but finds himself teaming up with his foe as there is more going on than they know. Nice and violent

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Managed to see the sequel to this reboot before this one. I saw the original set of films and this is not bad. Megan Fox does not distract from the film and the turtles look impressive. This was a lot of fun. A bit predictable as to who one of the villains was but bearing in mind who it was playing him, I have no complaints.

 

T2: Trainspotting A sequel to Trainspotting 20 years on that follows the threads of the earlier film, i.e. Sick Boy and Begbie want revenge on Renton for stealing the proceeds of their caper. Renton has returned to Edinburgh due to health problems. He runs into Sick Boy who manages to entangle him in a new scheme. Begbie is in prison and he escapes. He runs into Renton by accident and tries to kill him. The film is not as good as the original and really you have to see the original to appreciate this one. It is good but not as a standalone.

 

Interstellar One of the most ambitious and epic science fiction films of recent years. How do you save the human race as the planet is dying and technology has failed ? Looking at colonisation of far off worlds leads Mathew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway to take what amounts to a one way trip to find new worlds and get word back home. Impressive cast includes Michael Caine, John Lithgow and Jessica Chastain. If you want something a bit more thoughtful, try this.

 

Snowpiercer What remains of the human race are in a train traversing the globe as an attempt to contain global warming started a new Ice Age. However those at the back start a revolt and try to improve their situation. Chris Evans, John Hurt and Tilda Swinton star. An interesting idea and thought provoking but it is not for everyone.

 

Transcendence This is a Johnny Depp film about what happens when people revolt against technology and those in the technology industry try to preserve what they know. It was an interesting film and had good guest stars like Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman. Worth a look. 

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A Canterbury Tale

Made during World War 2, this concerns two soldiers one American and one British and a Land Army girl who work to find out why someone in army uniform is attacking women out at night putting glue in their hair. It is unusual in using an actual American soldier Sgt John Sweet amongst the actors. The protagonists make their way to Canterbury and the cathedral before the film's end. Worth watching at least once.

  

They Were Not Divided

This is another war film based on men joined one of the British guards regiments and their wartime service. They do not get to go to Africa and only join the combat after D-Day. One of the men is an American who joins a British regiment before America joins the war. Again worth seeing once.

 

The Secret Mission

This is made in the early part of the war and concerns soldiers trying to determine German positions in Northern France for bombers and for a paratroop strike. Notable for James Mason playing a French officer. Dated.

 

Tiger in the Smoke

A woman due to remarry has received photographs in the post which seem to indicate that her previous husband is still alive. The police and her new fiance also investigate and come up against the previous husband's colleagues who were commandos who want to find an old colleague who is extremely dangerous. Not bad.

 

Cry the Beloved Country

This is a film set in South Africa at the start of the 50s. Sidney Potier co-stars as a priest comes to Johannesburg looking for his son. However tragedy waits in the wings. Dated but a decent cry for tolerance.

 

Casbah

A musical set in Algiers where the police are trying to get their hands on notorious thief Pepe le Moko. One of Yvonne De Carlo's films and also stars Peter Lorre.

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The Rough and the Smooth

A man due to marry the daughter of a newspaper magnate has an affair with a foreign girl he meets and gets involved in her world. Worth seeing once. Dated.

 

The Teckman Mystery

A fiction writer is brought in to write a biography of a test pilot who disappeared when the new plane he was flying crashed and he is thought dead. Then people who knew the pilot have accidents or are killed. Worth a look.

 

I See a Dark Stranger

Deborah Kerr plays an Irish girl who is involved with fifth columnists as they try to recover a colleague arrested by the British. They need to pass information to Germany that the colleague hid.

 

Brandy for the Parson

A couple who are trying to have a yachting holiday accidentally collide with another boat sinking it. They help him as he then goes to France to get brandy to smuggle into Britain and they then play hide and seek with the Customs. Not bad

 

The Planter's Wife

Set during the Malayan emergency, rebels are attacking the rubber plantations and one planter is ending his son back to Britain to be educated and his wife is likely to leave him. The rebels eventually lay siege to the plantation house and the British army have to come to their aid. Will appeal to Americans as the British are fighting Communists.

 

The Venetian Bird

An insurance investigator is looking for an Italian who helped downed airman in the war but stumbles onto an assassination plot. Seen once you know what is going to happen.

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I am catching up with stuff that I have not seen at the cinema that is now being screened on terrestrial TV and older films that I have recorded or seen on a specific channel that is being broadcast in Britain called Talking Pictures. And now more that I should have entered previously

 

War Horse

This is the film adaptation of the stage play. Set in World War 1 a horse bought for a farm is requisitioned by the army. Captured by the Germans it works for them until being recovered by the British and its original owner. It is very good.

 

Anthropoid

This is another version of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. I prefer Operation Daybreak. Cillian Murphey and Jamie Dornan play the two assassins. It is good but the repercussions were savage.

 

San Andreas

Earthquake vs The Rock. I liked it as you saw people trying to get away and survive other than the main characters. See it if you are a Rock fan or like disaster movies.

 

Hell or High Water

Two brothers commit a series of robberies in order to save their family farm but the Texas rangers are after them. Worth a look.

 

Ransom

A hijacked jet in Sweden is the new escape route for terrorists who have the British ambassador hostage. Ian McShane and Sean Connery star. I like this.

 

Good Will Hunting

I finally got around to recording and seeing this. And my word it is good. Matt Damon and Robin Williams are rightfully praised for this film.

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And more I have missed

 

The Boys

This is a film based on testimony in a court of 4 boys accused of robbery and murder. You have what is said in court and then flashbacks. You don't find out until the end what actually happened.

 

Carlton Browne of the FO

This is a Terry Thomas film where he plays a bumbling civil servant in the Foreign Office sent to a remote locale which Peter Sellers is running sneakily. A comedy of its time

 

The Tawny Pipit

Set during World War 2 a recovering pilot and his nurse girlfriend come across a rare bird nesting in the countryside. News reaches bird watchers and an egg thief is commissioned to steal eggs. Nice and gentle

 

Lord of the Flies 1963

British schoolboys are the only survivors of a crashed plane and they revert to savagery. This is based on William Golding's book which was his first and was intended as a counterpoint to The Coral Island. See this version rather than the later remake.

 

The Man Who Finally Died

This is a Stanley Baker film and he plays a man returning to Germany looking for his father. He finds out his father has recently died but had been to the iron Curtain and had remarried. There is more going on than he knows. Worth a look. But set during the Cold War.

 

Burnt Evidence

This is a 1950s crime film concerning a love triangle and a fire which leads one of two men dead but who ? 

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And while we await the half time show at the Superbowl, more films missed from last year

 

The Driver

Ryan O'Neal plays a professional criminal whose speciality is getaway driver. Bruce Dern plays the cop chasing him. Serious but worth seeing.

 

Life of Pi

The only survivor of a shipwreck gives his tale. He shared his boat with a tiger. This is a visually beautiful film and worth seeing on a large screen.

 

Layer Cake

A drug dealer plans to retire but he is asked to do a task for major criminal figure. Negotiations with another crook and his associates regarding a drug deal also go south as the drugs were stolen from Serbian war criminals. Daniel Craig is the dealer trying to stay out of police custody and out of the bad books of other criminals.

 

The Killings in Outpost Zeta

Cheap and cheerful science fiction film about a rescue mission to a remote outpost after contact is lost. The rescuers also lose personnel to an unknown foe and have to work out what to do and how they will get away if at all.

 

Horrors of the Black Museum

One of two Michael Gough where he is playing the villain. In this one he is an author writing about killings but is actually setting the killings in motion. He also has a Black Museum mirroring the famous one held by Scotland Yard of notorious objects used by and belonging to criminals they have caught. Useful research for a Pulp story.

 

Konga

Michael Gough again and this time he is a scientist who comes back from Africa following a plane crash bringing a chimpanzee with him. Injections with a formula obtained in Africa turn the chimpanzee into a gorilla who is then sent out to do the scientist's bidding. A final injection makes the poor beast Kong size and it goes on the rampage eventually seizing is creator and being killed by conventional gunfire

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Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show, a documentary about the funniest show that everyone seemed to hate

(Dana Carvey, Robert Smigel, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Louis C.K.)

 

The Monuments Men, art historians try to save masterpieces during WWII.

(George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman)

 

 

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The Stargate SG-1 first-season episode "Emancipation". 

 

Mother of Hades, I had forgotten how cringe-worthy some of those early episodes were.  They're kinda like remakes of original Star Trek episodes (or remakes of Star Trek: The Next Generation remakes of original series episodes), but less subtle.

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My Fair Lady: Classic musical about a manipulative professor, and his "creation", which feels just a bit awkward watching it in the "me too" era. (Blu-ray via Netflix/DVD.com)

 

Bohemian Rhapsody: Biopic about Freddy Mercury and Queen that plays a bit loose with the facts. It probably would have been much better if it were shorter, and it bogs down a bit in the second act. (Blu-ray via Netflix/DVD.com)
 

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23 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

Carole &* Tuesday

 

The spiritual sequel to Cowboy Bebop. Same Director, Same Universe, Totally different Tone. Story of a pair of 17 year old girls trying to make it in the music business,.... on the martian colony.

 

Thank you for this. Had never come across this title before. Is that confirmed? Same universe?

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